Quick Start Rules

from the bank to your gem pile each turn. (Or a bigger gem when Panic Time starts!)

Play action chips from your hand

Crash Gems

Crash Gem

let you send gems from your gem pile to an opponent. You get money for doing so.

Buy at least one chip from the bank each turn.

Discard your hand, then draw 5 chips, plus any chips from the "height bonus" from having a full gem pile. The next player takes his turn unless.

If your gem pile totals 10 or more, you lose.

Turn Structure

1) Ante, 2) Action, 3) Buy, 4) Cleanup

Puzzle Strike

Puzzle Strike is "A card game played with chips instead of cards that simulates a puzzle game that simulates a fighting game."

Fantasy Strike

Puzzle Strike features 20 characters from the Fantasy Strike universe.

Fantasy Strike is an Olympic-style tournament that takes place in a fantasy martial arts world fractured by political conflict. Stone golem Garus Rook founded the tournament series to bring together the many provinces of the authoritarian Flagstone Kingdom and plant the idea of a different way of life.

Meanwhile, Grave Stormborne has gained notoriety throughout the kingdom as the only fighter to defeat Rook in a tournament match. Though Grave has no interest in matters of state, his fighting skills have piqued the interests of several factions.

Sirus Quince, Chief Magistrate of Flagstone is not happy about the Fantasy Strike tournament because it seems designed to breed dissension in the ranks. He orders his General, Onimaru, to disrupt the would-be entrants any way possible. His rousing speeches convince the Flagstone citizens of his righteousness.

Meanwhile, Captain Zane of the Blood Guard and his trusty assassin Vendetta are interested in causing as much mayhem as they can, for mayhem’s sake. If Flagstone crumbles in rubble, all the better. Zane is happy to attend the Fantasy Strike tournament to recruit new members who will help him defy authority.

And this is them playing a puzzle game!

Introduction

Puzzle Strike is a deck building game that simulates a puzzle game played amongst Fantasy Strike characters. In this puzzle game, gems fall into each player’s gem pile every turn, and whoever’s gem pile fills up first loses. You combine gems in your own gem pile to create bigger gems, then crash those gems to break them apart and send them to other players. The more full your gem pile is, the closer you are to losing, but the more chips you get to draw each turn to make a comeback.

You start the game with a small “deck” of chips and you buy more chips as you play, allowing you to customize your deck as you go. You’ll probably pursue different strategies from your opponents because you each play a different character with different strengths and weaknesses. You’ll definitely pursue different strategies each game because the set of common chips you build your deck from (the “bank”) changes every game. The number of combinations is staggeringly large, so there’s a lot to explore. Puzzle Strike has several modes: 2-player, 3/4-player free-for-all, 2 vs. 2 Team Battle*, and Custom Clockwork Mode where you build your own characters*.

* Coming soon on the online game

Object of the Game

Your goal is to overflow your opponent’s gem piles with too many gems. If you end your turn with the gems in your gem pile totaling 10 or more, you lose. (For example, four 1-gems

1-gem

, a 2-gem

2-gem

, and a 4-gem

4-gem

total 10.

The Purple Chips

The three purple chips are the heart of the game. They allow you to combine the gems in your gem pile and to get rid of those gems and send them to your opponents.

Combine

Combines two gems in your gem pile into a single gem if the total is 4 or less. For example you can combine a 1-gem

1-gem

and 2-gem

2-gem

into a 3-gem

3-gem

. (Put the 1-gem and 2-gem in the bank, then put a 3-gem from the bank into your gem pile.)

The -$1 means you have less gem power (money) to spend during the buy phase.

The arrow on the Combine means you get to play another action afterwards.

Crash Gem

Crash Gems break gems in your gem pile and send them to any opponent you want. If you crash a 1-gem from your gem pile, you get rid of it and send it to an opponent’s gem pile. Crashing a larger gem is even better because it breaks apart into 1-gems and sends them all at once.

For example, if you crash a 3-gem, it splits into three 1-gems and all of them go to your chosen opponent’s gem pile. (Put the 3-gem back in the bank, then get three 1-gems from the bank to send to that opponent.)

The +$1 on the Crash Gem means you also get a little extra money to use during your buy phase.

Double Crash Gem

The Double Crash Gem works the same way as the Crash Gem except that you can break two Gem chips in your gem pile instead of just one, and you gain +$2 of gem power that turn, instead of +$1.

If you have only one gem in your gem pile, it’s still legal to play a Double Crash Gem, though it would do nothing more than playing a regular Crash Gem in that case. You get $1 for each gem you break (normally that’s +$2 total).

Counter-Crashing

You can also use a Crash Gem to “counter-crash” gems in your gem pile when an opponent sends gems to you. When you do that you’re playing it as a reaction, indicated by the purple shield in the banner, and it doesn’t cost an action to play. When you counter-crash, your gems and your opponent’s gems collide in the air! Each 1-gem from your counter-crash negates a 1-gem sent by your opponent. Negated gems go back to bank. Any left-over 1-gems are sent to the player who crashed fewer gems.

For example, if an opponent crashes a 2-gem at you and you counter-crash a 1-gem, you’d negate one of the two incoming 1-gems, and the other one lands in your pile. Because you got rid of a 1-gem in your pile, but received another 1-gem, your pile would remain the same size. If instead you counter-crash a 2-gem, you’d negate both incoming 1-gems. Or if you counter-crash a 3-gem, you’d negate both incoming 1-gems and send a 1-gem to your opponent. Be careful—your opponent can counter-counter-crash that gem!

Uncounter-Crashable!

4-gems

4-gem

are special. If you crash a 4-gem in your gem pile, no one can counter-crash it; they can’t even play a purple shield chip as a reaction because the 4-gem is just that powerful! (If you use a Double Crash Gem to break a 4-gem and another gem, the whole thing is uncounter-crashable.)

The Fine Print

Crash Gems and Double Crash Gems give you money when you use them on your own turn, even if you counter-counter-crash with them. They don’t give you money if you use them on someone else’s turn.

You can only play one reaction (such as a counter-crash) per “event.” If someone crashes a 3-gem at you, that’s one event, and you can only counter-crash it one time.

Counter-crashing can go on and on back and forth, but you can’t do it unless at least one gem is sent to you. And you can’t do it if someone crashed (or counter-crashed) a 4-gem, either.

You can play a Combine even if it doesn’t combine anything in order to get the +black arrow.

Other Types of Chips

Gem Chips

Gems function differently when they are in your hand and when they’re in your gem pile. In your hand, they act as money that you use to buy chips from the bank each turn. Gems in your gem pile aren’t money though. They’re the kind of gems you want to crash to send to your opponents. You’ll have to add more gems to your pile each turn, and if it’s too full you lose the game.

Character Chips

There are 20 characters to choose from and each character has 3 chips. Your character’s 3 chips start in your deck, and they tend to push your strategy in one direction or another. Find which characters match the playstyles you enjoy.

Character chips can’t be trashed.

Character chips cost one action to play.

Puzzle Chips

Puzzle chips all have a puzzle icon at the top, with their cost inside. Puzzle chips start as part of the bank, and you can add them to your deck as you play by buying them.

Puzzle chips cost one action to play.

Wounds

Wounds are useless chips that clog up your deck. Try to avoid them or get rid of them if you can. You must buy at least one chip per turn, and if you can’t afford to buy anything else, you’ll have to buy a wound (they cost 0). If you have negative money, you’ll still can (and must) buy a wound.

You are only allowed to buy one wound per turn, though you wouldn’t want to buy more anyway unless you were trying to disrupt the game. If there are no wounds left in the bank, you don’t have to buy a chip at all that turn.

Setup: Your Starting Deck

First, each player chooses a character from the 10 possible characters. Each character has exactly 3 Character chips with that character's picture at the top. Take your 3 Character chips, 1 Crash Gem

Crash Gem

chip, and 6 1-gem

1-gem

chips and put them in your bag. This is your starting deck. Draw 5 chips for your opening hand.

Setup: The Bank

This variation of starting stacks, along with the possible character choices in a 4-player game means that there are 411,863,760 different starting conditions in Puzzle Strike.

Next, set up the bank. The bank consists of stacks of all the chips players are allowed to buy during the game, but you don't use all the chips every game. There are 24 different Puzzle chips, each with 5 copies. Select just 10 of these 24 stacks, put them in the bank, and leave the other 14 stacks of Puzzle chips in the box. The bank always contains the Gem, Purple, and Wound

Wound

chips. For your first game, we suggest these 10 stacks of Puzzle chips:

The Bank

Puzzle Chips - 10 Different Stacks Each Game*

x5

x5

x5

x5

x5

x5

x5

x5

x5

x5

Gems, Purples & Wound - Same 8 Stacks Every Game

x64**

x20

x16

x12

x20

x16**

x10

x24

Turn Phases

Turn Structure

A, A, B, C are the four phases each turn: Ante, Action, Buy, Cleanup. Do each phase in order on your turn.

Ante Phase

At the start of the game, your gem pile is empty. At the beginning of your turn, take a 1-gem from the bank and put it in your gem pile.

If the game goes too long, you’ll enter Panic Time and you’ll have to ante more. See below for more info on that.

Action Phase

Each turn you may play one Action chip--any chip with a banner. To play an Action chip, put it face up on the table and do whatever it says. (It won't go to your discard pile until the cleanup phase.)

Chips with + on them let you play more actions that turn (see below). For other colored arrows, see the "Stuff on the chips" section below.

If an effect would make you draw a chip when your bag is empty, then put the chips from your discard pile (not including the chips you played to the table this turn) into your bag, shake your bag to shuffle them, then continue drawing.

Buy Phase

During the buy phase, you buy chips from the bank. You must buy at least one chip per turn. Bought chips go to your discard pile.

Play as many Gem chips as you want from your hand to the table (not to your gem pile!), then add their values to any +gem power you might have gotten during this turn's action phase. Subtract $1
for each Combine you played this turn. That total is how much money you may spend this turn. Gems in your gem pile do not count as money.

You don't have to spend all your money each turn, but you get no benefit from unspent money because all your money--spent or unspent--will go to your discard pile at the end of your turn. You can buy as many chips as you want each turn, as long as you can afford to pay for them.

For example, if you had 6 money to spend this turn, you could buy any chip costing up to 6 or you could buy two chips costing 3. You could even buy a chip costing 1 and let your other 5 money go unused, if you want.

Wound

Wound

chips are notable because they are the only chips in the bank that cost 0 to buy. Even if you have no money during a turn, you must still buy a Wound

Wound

for 0. You can and must buy a Wound if you have less than 0 money. You can’t buy more than one wound per turn.

Remember that the chips you buy go directly to your discard pile and their effects don’t trigger when you buy them. You’ll draw those chips later in the game though, so buying now is planning for the future.

Cleanup Phase

Make sure any chips you bought this turn are in your discard pile, put all the chips you played to the table this turn (including gem chips used as money) into your discard pile, and discard the chips in your hand. Then draw 5 chips.

The Height Bonus

The higher the sum of your gem pile is, the more extra chips you get to draw. Remember this shorthand: “If your gem pile has 3 / 6 / 9 in it, then draw an extra +1 / +2 / +3 chips.” In other words, if your gem pile totals 3, 4, or 5, draw an extra chip. If it totals 6, 7, or 8, draw two extra chips instead. If it totals 9, draw 3 extra chips instead. These bonus draws are in addition to the usual 5 chips you draw during the cleanup phase.

Winning the Game

Whenever a player ends his turn with his gem pile totaling 10 or more, he loses the game. In a 2p game, that’s it! In a 3p or 4p game, the player with the lowest gem pile total wins the game.

If there is a tie for lowest total, the tied players each take one more turn, check for a lowest, and repeat until there is one winner.

Panic Time!

You have to ante bigger gems as the game goes on! You’ll find this rule kick in a lot less as you get better at the game.

In a 2-player game, the first moment there are two simultaneously empty stacks in the bank, Panic Time is activated and everyone must ante 2-gems from then on. Even if chips later return to bank and fill up some stacks, the game does not return to Normal Time. The first moment there are three simultaneously empty bank stacks, Danger Time is activated and everyone antes 3-gems from then on. The first time four stacks are simultaneously empty, Deadly Time is activated and everyone must ante 4-gems from then on. Note that if you would ever ante a certain kind of gem that the bank is out of, you must ante it anyway with a stand-in gem of some sort.

For games with 3 or 4 players, the same sort of thing happens. The number of empty stacks needed to activate Panic Time is actually X, where X is the number of players. X+1, and X+2 empty stacks are when Danger Time and Deadly Time activate. The 2 vs. 2 Team Battle mode counts as 4-player game for purposes of the Panic Time rules.

Basic Strategy

Puzzle Strike’s strategy is a tricky thing, and you can go really wrong if you’re not careful. If you follow these tips as a beginner, it should get you on the right track to improving though. These tips are just a starting point, and when you understand more about each character and more about how the game changes with each different bank, you’ll graduate past them. But you have to start somewhere!

Remember that your ultimate goal is to fill up your opponents’ gem piles. Just buying gems for money all day won’t accomplish that. Money is a means to an end, and the value of buying more gems for money goes down as the game goes on. What matters a lot is your ability to combine and crash. Building a deck that can draw tons of chips and play tons of actions each turn means that you’ll access your combines and crashes even faster. And red chips can disrupt your opponents, which means you’ll be under a little bit less pressure.

Combining to build 4-gems in your gem pile is really good. Those are uncounter-crashable and they really help you win.

When you’re winning, generally don’t counter-crash. Doing so has the net effect of slowing down the game by removing gems from the system. If you’re winning, let those gem piles fill up so your opponents lose! If you are in trouble and need to slow the game down a bit, that’s a good time to counter-crash.

Buying Tips

You want about 1-2 Combines per Crash Gem in your deck. You usually want Combines more in the late game than early game.

You probably want another Crash Gem around every 7 buys. Sometimes you can delay the 2nd Crash Gem buy a bit.

Don't buy money if your pile totals more than six, and don't buy purples if your pile totals less than three.

Try to get a couple 2-gems or a 2-gem and a 3-gem somewhere in your first 7 buys. Or, you can fill those slots with puzzle chips that help your money situation.

Think about how you’ll be able to play the chips you’re buying. You need +arrows to be able to play “enders” (meaning chips that themselves don’t give any +arrows). If you find yourself with too many enders, they might have been poor buys. If you find yourself with more +arrows than you can use, you are wasting that resource and you could have bought some more powerful enders.

2 vs 2 Team Battle Mode (4 Players)

Want to team up with a friend? In this mode, no one can get eliminated early, so all four players get to play for the entire game. Form up your teams of two and get ready for Team Battle!

Shared Gem Pile. Teammates share a (normal sized) gem pile, but do not share other resources. Each player has his own hand, bag, and discard pile as usual. If you get +arrow or +$, etc., that goes to you only--it’s not shared with your teammate. Anything that says "you" in the game means "you," so if you have a Secret Move on the table and your teammate buys a purple chip, it doesn’t get rid of your Secret Move because “you” didn’t buy that purple chip.

Action Phase. Teammates share their action phase. You can each play your actions in any order, and you each get your natural one action per turn. For example, you might play Roundhouse (and draw from it), then your teammate could play something, then you use Roundhouse's +arrow to play something else.

Buy Phase. Teammates share their buy phase. You can make your buys in any order. You must each buy at least one chip. Counter-crashing. When the opposing team sends gems to your gem pile, either you or your teammate can countercrash. You choose which, but you both can’t react to the same “event.”

Winning. When a team ends their turn with their gem pile totaling 10 or more, they lose the game. Make sure you work with your teammate to cover each other’s weaknesses, or amplify each other’s plans!

Free-For-All (3 or 4 Players)

This mode is for 3 or 4 players. It’s kind of crazy and hectic because anyone can crash gems to anyone else.

Winning the Game

Whenever a player ends his turn with his gem pile totaling 10 or more, he loses the game. The player with the lowest gem pile total wins the game. Yes, really! If there is a tie for lowest total, the tied players each take one more turn, check for a lowest, and repeat until there is one winner.

Crashing

Whenever you send gems to someone, if they decline to counter-crash, each other player (in turn order) gets a chance to counter-crash for for them. Only one counter-crash per “send,” as usual. If someone counter-crashes and sends at least one gem (but not a 4-gem!), anyone has a chance to
counter-counter-crash that, and so on. Crashes always break gems in your own gem pile, never any one else’s.

Dynamics

Let’s think about the strange dynamics that creates for a moment. If anyone is ever about to lose, there is always at least one other player who is suddenly on his side, wanting to save him. Only the player with the lowest pile actually wants the game to end. Alliances shift back and forth as the situations change, and you might even be able to convince other players to make the moves that will secretly help you, if you argue your case well enough. It’s kind of wet and wild, and everyone gets to play for the entire duration of the game.

Floating Gems

In an free-for-all game, you can’t “send” gems (by crashing or otherwise) if your gem pile totals 10 or more. Whenever you would send gems to an opponent on your turn, if your gem pile totals 10 or more, those gems “float” in limbo. (The gems you broke in your gem pile are really gone right away though.) The first moment your pile is 9 or less, your floating gems are sent to their targets. If you had two separate crash events waiting in limbo, they each get sent one at a time, and opponents can counter-crash each one as usual. If you end your turn with your gem pile totaling 10 more, those floating gems are destroyed and don’t go to anyone.

Last Man Standing Variant

If you like, you can try a last-man-standing variant. In this mode, when a player ends his turn with his gem pile totaling 10 or more, he’s eliminated and the rest of the players keep playing until only one is left. Whenever a player is eliminated, increase the Panic Time level by one. (Meaning everyone antes a gem that’s one larger from then on.) This mode isn’t recommended because it suffers from the same problems of almost all free-for-all modes: teaming up to knock someone else out is too powerful. The official rules above with no player-elimination don’t have that problem, but if you’re looking for a variant, your group could try last-man-standing.

Custom Clockwork Mode

In this mode, you can build your own clockwork soldier by mixing abilities from any characters. For a 2-player game, first choose 9 character chips at random out of the entire set of 30. For a 3 or 4 player game, choose 12 or 15 character chips, respectively. Each player will draft 3 chips from this pool. Take turns drafting one chip at a time, in the following order:

2-player game: 122112

3-player game: 123321123

4-player game: 123443211234

2v2 game: same as 4p where teams are player 1&4 vs. 2&3.

Caution: this mode is wild!

Stuff on the Chips You Need to Know

There are a lot of symbols and terms on the chips. Here’s what they do:

ActionBlack arrows allow you to play another Action chip of any color during the action phase this turn.

ChipDraw an extra chip from your bag.

Piggy BankDuring the cleanup phase, you may keep a chip in your hand that you didn't play rather than discard it. If you do, draw one less chip at the end of the turn.

Gem PowerGet extra gem power (money) to spend during the buy phase this turn.

Colored arrows give you an action that you can only spend on chips with a banner of that same color. There are brown, purple, red, and blue arrows; each one gives an extra action just for chips that have the corresponding color of banner.

Icons in the Banners of Chips

AttackAttacks cause negative effects to other players.

ReactEach player can react once to each that would affect him or her.

Crash SphereThese appear only on Combines

Combine

, Crash Gems

Crash Gem

, and Double Crash Gems

Double Crash Gem

.

Crash ReactYou can only play this when an opponent sends gems to your gem pile, but not if your opponent crashed a 4-gem

4-gem

(4-gems are too powerful!)

ExclamationThe mightiest of all chips. Look on it and despair.

Some Important Terms

Trashing a Chip

To trash a chip means to return it to the bank. Trashing is a way to make your deck more efficient by getting rid of chips you don’t need anymore.

Gaining a Chip

To gain a chip means to put it in your discard pile--not your hand. You’ll draw it later though, don’t worry.

Ongoing

It costs an action to play an “ongoing” chip to the table. Once it’s there, you get the benefit each turn without paying an action.

Main and Reaction

Main refers to what the chip can do when you use it during the action phase of your own turn.

Reaction refers to what it can do in response to something an opponent does. Reactions don't cost an action to play.

You can only play one reaction to any given event and you discard a reaction on use.

Ante

Ante means to take a Gem chip from the bank and put it into your gem pile (or someone else’s if a chip says to do that).

On Top of Your Bag

Putting a chip on top of your bag means just that--putting it on top of your bag rather than inside it. When you draw from your bag, first take any chips “on your bag” into your hand before drawing chips from inside your bag. If you put multiple chips “on your bag,” then stack them and draw them in order.

Chips put “on top of your bag” don’t go inside it, and when you next draw chips, you draw these first.

Start Playing Now

You can probably stop reading these rules now. The rest of this stuff is just annoying, nitpicky rules in case you get stuck on some detail. You already know enough to start playing, so get started! Oh, and here are some recommended sets of 10 Puzzle chips to get you going:

First Game

Combos Are Hard

Combos Are Hard

, Draw Three

Draw Three

, Gem Essence

Gem Essence

, Knockdown

Knockdown

, One of Each

One of Each

, One-Two Punch

One-Two Punch

, Risky Move

Risky Move

, Sale Prices

Sale Prices

, Self-Improvement

Self-Improvement

, Sneak Attack

Sneak Attack

.
(Use Self-Improvement

Self-Improvement

against Knockdown

Knockdown

!)

Lots of Attacks

Chip Damage

Chip Damage

, It's a Trap

It's a Trap

, Knockdown

Knockdown

, Mix-Master

Mix-Master

, Really Annoying

Really Annoying

, Recklessness

Recklessness

, Self-Improvement

Self-Improvement

, Sneak Attack

Sneak Attack

, Stolen Purples

Stolen Purples

, Thinking Ahead

Thinking Ahead

.

No Attacks

Draw Three

Draw Three

, Gems to Gemonade

Gems to Gemonade

, Iron Defense

Iron Defense

, One of Each

One of Each

, One-Two Punch

One-Two Punch

, Recklessness

Recklessness

, Roundhouse

Roundhouse

, Sale Prices

Sale Prices

, Secret Move

Secret Move

, Training Day

Training Day

.

Combo Crazy

Chip Damage

Chip Damage

, Draw Three

Draw Three

, Master Puzzler

Master Puzzler

, It's Combo Time

It's Combo Time

, One of Each

One of Each

, One-Two Punch

One-Two Punch

, Recklessness

Recklessness

, Roundhouse

Roundhouse

, Sale Prices

Sale Prices

, Sneak Attack

Sneak Attack

.

Master Puzzler

Combos Are Hard

Combos Are Hard

, Draw Three

Draw Three

, Gems to Gemonade

Gems to Gemonade

, Knockdown

Knockdown

, Master Puzzler

Master Puzzler

, Mix-Master

Mix-Master

, Risky Move

Risky Move

, Roundhouse

Roundhouse

, Self-Improvement

Self-Improvement

, Training Day

Training Day

.

More Rules

Banner Colors

These are all the colors of the banners across the tops of chips: brown, red, blue, purple, gray (wound), and gold. If a chip has more than one color in the banner, such as Really Annoying

Really Annoying

’s blue and red banner, then it counts as all those colors.

Do Things In Order

When a chip tells you to do more than one thing, do those things in the normal reading order: left to right, top to bottom. If a chip tells you to choose two or more things to do, first choose, then do your choices in any order.

Do Everything You Can

If it’s impossible to do everything a chip tells you to do, then do as much as you can. Don’t move on to playing other chips until you’ve done everything you can on the current chip.

Simultaneous Effects

If a chip affects multiple players and the order matters, resolve the effects in turn-order, starting with the player whose turn it is.

Reaction Timing

If an opponent plays a chip then you play a reaction, your reaction resolves first, then the opponent’s effect resolves.

Discard Piles are Public

All discard piles are public information and any player may look through any other player’s discard pile at any time.

Running Out of Chips

If a stack in the bank runs out of chips, tough luck, you can’t buy any more of them and effects that would let you gain those chips don’t do anything. If you would ever ante a gem when the bank is out of that kind of gem, ante a stand-in gem instead. If there are no wounds left in the bank and you can’t afford to buy any other chips, you don’t have to buy a chip at all that turn.

Notes on Specific Chips (Base set)

Puzzle Chips

Chip Damage

If a player discards a Purple Orb chip instead of two chips, that chip must literally have a purple orb printed in the banner. Players can choose to “discard two chips” even if they have just 1 or 0 chips in hand.

Combos Are Hard

The bank contains Puzzle chips, Gem chips, Purple chips, and Wounds. Remember that “gain” means to put the chips in the discard pile. You can’t gain Master Puzzler with this.

Draw Three

So yeah... you draw three chips.

Gem Essence

The trashed gem chip goes back to the bank. You can use either the red arrow OR the blue arrow to play Really Annoying

Really Annoying

.

Gems to Gemonade

This only works when gems are “sent” to you. Crashing or counter-crashing gems in a gem pile “sends” gems but other operations like Sneak Attack

Sneak Attack

do not.

You can’t counter crash AND play this chip as a reaction to the same “send” because you can only play one reaction per event.

It’s a Trap

You can trap any kind of stack in the bank: a puzzle, gem, purple, or wound stack. For the trap token, use a spare coin or any other object you have laying around.

It’s Combo Time

You pretty much just read the chip.

Iron Defense

You can use the Crash Gem

Crash Gem

on your own turns or use it to counter-crash when an opponent sends gems to you. After you use the Crash Gem, it goes to your discard pile as usual. It costs an action to use the Crash Gem. You can use the Crash Gem the same turn you get it if you have the arrows for it.

Knockdown

The restriction about playing purple shields ends at the end of the turn you play Knockdown. If the chosen opponent has some way of playing a purple shield chip NOT as a reaction, they can still do that.

Master Puzzler

You cannot play or gain Gem chips with this. You cannot play chips from your hand in the middle of resolving Master Puzzler. Remember to put the chips you “gain” with Master Puzzler into your discard pile. You don’t gain a chip if it trashes as part of its effect, such as It's a Trap

It's a Trap

. If the bank is out of a certain chip, you can’t use Master Puzzler to play that chip.

Mix-Master

This chip is both red and purple, so if you have either a red or purple arrow from another chip, you can play this. An example use is if an opponent’s largest gem (in his gem pile) is a 3-gem

3-gem

, he splits it into three 1-gems

1-gem

. If an opponent has more than one Gem chip tied for largest in his gem pile, he only splits one of them. You don’t have to suffer -$1 to combine the gems. You still get to combine gems in your pile even if the opposing piles have all 1-gems, and thus nothing to split.

One of Each

One-Two Punch

Check above to see what the symbols do.

Really Annoying

This chip is both red and blue, so if you have either a red or blue arrow from another chip, you can play the main action of this chip. When played as a reaction, it counts as a blue shield and a red fist, so other players can react to the reaction with Really Annoying or Self-Improvement

Self-Improvement

, for example.

Recklessness

Wow, three arrows!

Risky Move

If you put a 4-gem

4-gem

from your hand to your gem pile, you don’t get to gain a gem from the bank. There’s no such thing as a 5-gem.

Roundhouse

Simple and good.

Sale Prices

Treat the on-sale chips in the bank as if their costs really are lower. For example, Training Day

Training Day

looks at the discounted cost, not the cost printed on the chip.

Secret Move

You get the +piggy-bank even on the turn you play this chip. You only discard this from the table if you buy a Combine

Combine

, Crash Gem

Crash Gem

or Double Crash Gem

Double Crash Gem

chip.

Self-Improvement

It can’t trash itself. You can only play one reaction to any given event. The reaction is unusual in that its effect happens after the attack finishes resolving.

Sneak Attack

The ante comes from the bank. In a 2v2 game, the other team only has to ante one time.

Stolen Purples

The opponent discards only the chips that actually have purple spheres printed in their banners. You must steal a purple orb chip if possible. If there aren’t any chips to steal, you don’t trash this chip, but you must trash it if you do steal a chip.

Thinking Ahead

For the main action, if you buy several chips in a turn, it’s up to you how many of them to put on top of your bag. For the reaction, you must trash Thinking Ahead.

Training Day

It can’t trash itself or a character chip. The chip you gain can’t cost less than the trashed chip.

Character Chips

Grave - Reversal

This only works when gems are “sent”. Crashing or counter-crashing gems in a gem pile “sends” gems but other operations like Sneak Attack

Sneak Attack

do not.

You can’t counter crash AND play this chip as a reaction to the same “send” because you can only play one reaction per event.

Grave - Martial Mastery

It can’t trash itself or other character chips.

Grave - Versatile Style

Enjoy.

Jaina - Playing with Fire

The ante comes from the bank.

Jaina - Burning Vigor

The ante comes from the bank.

Jaina - Unstable Power

Just like a Double Crash Gem

Double Crash Gem

, this does give you money if used on your turn. If someone plays Stolen Purples

Stolen Purples

and you have Unstable Power in your hand, you don’t have to discard it because it doesn’t have a purple sphere in the banner.

Midori - Dragon Form

The ante comes from the bank. If the bank is out of the gem type you need to ante, then ante a proxy gem instead.

Dragon Form does stop opponents from reacting with Crash Gems

Crash Gem

, Double Crash Gems

Double Crash Gem

, Gems to Gemonade

Gems to Gemonade

, Grave’s Reversal

Reversal

, and Rook’s Stone Wall

Stone Wall

. During Deadly Time, you still ante a 4-gem.

Midori - Rigorous Training

“Gained” chips go to your discard pile. This chip has a shield in the banner because it’s a reaction. It’s a brown shield rather than blue because it doesn’t react to an opponent’s attack.

Midori - Purge Bad Habits

The “gained” chip comes from the bank.

Setsuki - Speed of the Fox

It’s pretty self-explanatory!

Setsuki - Bag of Tricks

Have fun.

Setsuki - Double-take

If you gain extra actions (+arrows) with this chip, you can’t actually use them because your action phase ends before you can. If you Double-take an attack, each instance requires a separate reaction.

Rook - Stone Wall

The incoming gems are negated, so put them in the bank instead of in your gem pile.

You can’t counter crash AND play this chip as a reaction to the same “send” because you can only play one reaction per event.

Rook - Big Rocks

For example, you could trash a 2-gem

2-gem

from your hand (return it to the bank), then take a 3-gem

3-gem

from the bank and put it in your hand. Trashing a 4-gem

4-gem

would be a bad move though; you wouldn’t get anything for it.

Rook - Strength of Earth

If you can legally combine, you must. If you can’t legally combine, you still get the +brown arrow.

DeGrey - Pilebunker

If an opponent has more than one Gem chip tied for largest in his hand, he only trashes one of them.

DeGrey - No More Lies

Trashed chips go to the bank.

DeGrey - Troublesome Rhetoric

You get either the top two or bottom two thingies.

Valerie - Three Colors

It goes nicely with Chromatic Orb!

Valerie - Chromatic Orb

This chip is purple, brown, red, and blue, so an arrow of any of those colors will let you play it. You can’t use the crash effect as a reaction, but others can react to it with a purple shield. You don’t get $1 from this.

Valerie - Creative Thoughts

Enjoy the chip.

Geiger - Research & Development

If you don’t find any Purple Orb chips in your bag, you can’t complete the exchange. In this case, ignore the text on the chip and just gain +action.

Geiger - Future Sight

Using the +piggy-banks are optional, so you can use neither, one or both to keep 0, 1, or 2 chips for next turn. Drawing two chips when you play Future Sight is mandatory though.

Geiger - It’s Time for the Past

Puzzle chips are the chips with a black puzzle piece icon at the top.

Lum - Jackpot

You can choose a Combine

Combine

, Crash Gem

Crash Gem

, or Double Crash Gem

Double Crash Gem

. Yeah you probably want that Double Crash Gem, huh? Play it then “gain” it by putting it in your discard pile.

Lum - Panda’s Bargain

If you bought more than one puzzle chip, you only get to draw one chip total.

Lum - Living on the Edge

The check of your gem pile size only happens the moment you play this chip--if your gem pile size changes later in the turn, it doesn't matter.

Argagarg - Hex of Murkwood

Each opponent chooses whether to discard two wounds or gain a wound. If they can’t discard two wounds, they must gain a wound. If there are no wounds in the bank, they don’t gain one.

Argagarg - Bubble Shield

The ongoing effect of the bubble triggers only after your chance to counter-crash. It will not trigger if you countercrash all incoming gems. If some gems are still incoming, the bubble’s effect is not optional. The bubble negates only one of the 1-gems

1-gem

sent to you, and triggers even if the opponent crashes a powerful 4-gem

4-gem

at you. You don’t get to counter-crash the rest of that 4-gem though.

The reaction half of the chip can only be played when the chip is in your hand, not when it’s “ongoing” on the table.

Argagarg - Protective Ward

This affects you as well as other players. This applies to any chip effect that says to “combine” gems in a gem pile, including Combine

Combine

, Mix-Master

Mix-Master

, Strength of Earth

Strength of Earth

and the expansion chips One True Style

One True Style

, Combinatorics

Combinatorics

, and Option Select

Option Select

(when Option Select targets any of those other chips). You must discard the puzzle chips before getting the effects of the chip saying to combine gems. If you don’t discard a puzzle chip, you don't combine gems, but you do get any other effects written on that chip, like +arrows.

Notes on Specific Chips (Shadows)

Puzzle Chips (Shadows)

Axe Kick

This is an easy one.

Bang then Fizzle

You add up the numbers on the gems in your gem pile to see if it’s 4 or fewer (don’t just count how many gems you have). The once-per-turn means you can’t even play separate copies of this chip during the same turn.

Blues are Good

If a chip has a multicolor banner that contains blue, it’s ok to search for it. The blue arrows mean you can play the blues you searched for right away.

Button Mashing

Enjoy!

Chips for Free

It can’t trash itself or a character chip. The chip you gain can’t cost less than the trashed chip.

Color Panic

A multicolor banner that contains the named color counts. If more than one opponent fails the test, you still only get a total of one +arrow.

Degenerate Trasher

It can’t remove itself or character chips. The trashed chips go back to the bank.

Ebb or Flow

You can play this as a reaction if a red fist would affect you. Note that the trashed 1-gems go back to the bank. The ante comes from the bank.

Hundred-Fist Frenzy

Hundred-Fist-Frenzy activates and crashes after your red fist attack happens. Even if your red fist didn’t end up affecting other players, HFF still activates. When you crash using this chip, you don’t get any +gem power (money) for it. If you have multiple copies of this chip in play, they all trigger whenever you play a red fist. If any opponent ends his action phase without doing anything, you discard all the copies of this chip you have in play. If there is a timing overlap with a blue saying it also happens “after you are fist attacked” then the blue happens after Hundred-Fist Frenzy.

Improvisation

For the main action, you draw and reveal two chips. If one or both are gems, you have to discard those without any benefit. For non-gems drawn this way, you must play them and playing them doesn’t cost an action. You can choose the order in which you play both chips (Note: this supersedes the printed rulebook). If you would play a once-per-turn chip (of the same name) a second time, it has no effect. If a chip says to end your action phase, you don’t get to keep going and play the other chip. Note that when you play Improvisation as a reaction on another player’s turn though, ending your action phase doesn’t actually do anything (it wasn’t your action phase anyway!) so you can keep going in that case.

When you play the reaction and it’s not your turn, any +gem power (money), +arrows, or +pigs you get don’t do anything.

Just a Scratch

Gaining a wound means putting a wound chip from the bank into your discard pile.

Money for Nothing

When you use this on your turn, you’ll be able to use the new gem for money on that same turn. To play it as a reaction, you must be affected by an opponent’s red fist attack.

Now or Later

The second option means that you look at the set of all chips in your hand and discard pile, then trash a gem, wound, or both from that set. You can’t, for example, trash a wound from your hand and a wound from your discard pile.

One True Style

You don’t have to pay -$1 to combine the gems.

Option Select

This chip has a gray banner until the moment it’s actually played, at which point it copies the banner and everything else about the chip it targets. So you can’t use a +brown arrow to play this, even if you want to copy a brown-banner chip with it. You can use a +black arrow to play it though. You can’t Option Select an empty bank stack.

This chip CAN copy the reaction shields on other chips, so it can be played as any reaction chip in the bank (of cost 5 or less).

If you copy a Combine

Combine

, then other chips that check if you played a Combine really will trigger.
Option Selecting a chip with “ongoing” is probably not useful, but you do get whatever benefit it would immediately grant when play. For example, Option Selecting Secret Move

Secret Move

from the base set would give you +arrow and +piggy-bank (that turn only). Option Selecting Hundred-Fist Frenzy

Hundred-Fist Frenzy

does nothing useful though. Option Selecting a red fist would let you trigger a Hundred-Fist Frenzy

Hundred-Fist Frenzy

you had in play, by the way.
Option Select is trashed on use no matter what any other chip says. So Repeated Jabs

Repeated Jabs

doesn’t really put it on top of your bag if you Option Select it.

Ouch!

The ante comes from the bank. The once-per-turn means you can’t even play separate copies of this chip during the same turn.

Pick Your Poison

The ante comes from the bank.

Punch, Punch, Kick

This is a simple one.

Repeated Jabs

The ante comes from the bank.

Risk to Riskonade

The ante comes from the bank. You get to draw two chips too!

Safe Keeping

Putting the 1-gem from your gem pile into your bag can keep your gem pile low if you’re in danger of losing. It’s optional to do this part and even if you don’t, you still get the +black arrow and +piggy-bank.

Signature Move

If there aren’t any character chips in your discard pile, you can choose to skip the first sentence of the chip. If there is a character chip in your discard pile, you can’t choose to put no character chip in your hand (either choose that one or get a different one from your bag if you prefer). The last sentence lets you play any character chip in your hand, whether it’s the one you just searched or not.

The Hammer

You can ante one 4-gem, get the +chip, then decide if you want to keep going. Hopefully you can win the game with this by using the +arrows to crash somehow. Remember that when you crash those 4-gems, no one can counter-crash, and they can’t even react with any purple shields.

X-Copy

Resolve each of the two “plays” of an X-Copy one at a time. If a play would end your action phase (such as Master Puzzler

Master Puzzler

from the base set), it really does end it and you can’t continue.

It can’t copy itself but can copy another copy of itself. When you X-Copy (#1) another X-Copy (#2), you must target two separate hand chips for the two resolutions of the second X-Copy. For example, if your hand is X-Copy, X-Copy, Crash Gem, 1-gem, 1-gem, you cannot crash 4 gems. But if it's X-Copy, X-Copy, Crash Gem, Crash Gem, 1-gem, then you can crash 4 gems.

If you X-Copy an Ongoing chip, such as Secret Move

Secret Move

from the base set, you get the non-ongoing effect twice (the +arrow), but don't get anything after "Ongoing" twice.
You can’t X-Copy the Crash Gem in your gem pile from the base set’s Iron Defense

Iron Defense

chip (it’s not in your hand.)
The copied chip is really “played” twice, even if it’s a self-trashing chip like Button Mashing

Button Mashing

or Option Select

Option Select

. If you would play a once-per-turn chip twice in a turn, the second time doesn’t do anything. When you X-Copy an attack, the victims can blue-shield react to each instance of the attack.
When you X-Copy a chip that gives you a choice, such as Color Panic

Color Panic

or Now or Later

Now or Later

, you can make different choices for each play.

Character Chips (Shadows)

Quince - Flagstone Tax

You add up the numbers on the gems in your gem pile to see if it’s 3 or fewer (don’t just count how many gems you have).

Quince - Patriot Mirror

You add up the numbers on the gems in your gem pile to see if it’s odd (you don’t simply count the number of gems in your gem pile). You get the +arrow and +pig on the turn you play this, and you get them on a turn where you must discard it for having an odd gem pile total.

Quince - Two Truths

If you have only one chip in your discard pile, or two copies of the same chip, that doesn’t count as “two different chips” so you don’t get the effect at all. “You may play it” means you don’t have to spend an action to play it.

Onimaru - Riposte

Can't return itself.

Onimaru - Double Slash

This crashes gems in your own gem pile only.

Onimaru - Wartime Tactics

You get a one-time use of a bank chip with Wartime Tactics. That bank chip then goes back to the bank (trashes) even if the chip itself says that it would go somewhere else. You can’t target an empty bank stack with Wartime Tactics.

Bal-Bas-Beta - Upgrade

Can't trash itself or character chips.

Bal-Bas-Beta - Cog Engine

You get the +$1 and the +piggybank even on the turn you play this.

Bal-Bas-Beta - Rocket Punch

You can only crash a 1-gem from your own gem pile. You don’t get +gem power (money) for doing so. Your opponent can counter-crash or purple shield the sent gem. After that, the gems from the opponent’s original send go to your pile. Rocket Punch can’t reduce the amount that would be sent to you.

Troq - Giant Growth

You only get the +brown arrow the turn you play this.

Troq - More Shiny

The gained 2-gem comes from the bank and goes to your discard pile.

Troq - Beast Unleashed

You add up the numbers on the gems in your gem pile to see if it’s 6 or more (don’t just count how many gems you have).

Menelker - Bonecracker

If a player has more than one gem tied for the largest, he only discards one of them.

Menelker - Into Oblivion

The removed stack counts as empty for Panic Time purposes. If a chip in someone's hand or another zone gets trashed and would go to a removed stack, it doesn't go back to the regular bank; it goes to the Oblivion'd stack outside of the game. If Into Oblivion later returns that stack, it returns those extra trashed chips too. If the Oblivion'd stack has trap tokens on it from the base set’s It's a Trap

It's a Trap

, those persist and get returned later too. In a game with multiple Menelkers, one Menelker can return to play a stack that the other Menelker removed.

Menelker - Deathstrike Dragon

The trashed 1-gems go to the bank. The gems you send can be counter-crashed or purple shield reacted to. Even though character chips can’t be trashed in general, this really can trash itself. Set it aside for the rest of the game.

Persephone - Pleasure & Pain

Each opponent chooses whether to discard a wound or put one from the bank into his bag (not your choice). For the last sentence on the chip, you can choose your own discard pile.

Persephone - Always in Control

You don’t draw chips for using +piggy-banks you got from other chips.

Persephone - Mistress's Command

You add up the numbers on the gems in their gem pile to see if it’s 6 or 9 (don’t just count how many gems they have). If their gem pile no longer has the right total when this resolves (because they reacted with Ebb or Flow, for example) then the rest of the text doesn’t trigger. You must put a bank chip into their hand (not a ! chip though). That chip can be a wound, but you might also want to put a different chip in their hand that you can use against them. You make them play 0, 1, or 2 chips from their hand, and one of those can be the chip you just gave them. (You can’t choose a wound as a chip they play and you can’t make them play reactions.) When you make them play a chip, you resolve it completely then you can choose a second chip to make them play if you want.

You make all decisions about how that chip is played. For example, if it says to trash a gem in their gem pile, you choose which gem. They are playing that chip, not you, so if it’s a Crash Gem it can only break gems in their gem pile, for example. Any +arrows, +money, or +pig they get will be wasted because it’s your turn when you play Mistress’s Command (unless you somehow played it off Improvisation). Try to trash their chips or biggest gems in their gem piles, or try to fill their gem pile, or waste their +arrows if you can.

Gloria - Radiant Healing

Players can’t trash the wound or 1-gem unless they discard a puzzle chip. “Each player” includes you, so you get this effect too.

Gloria - Saving Grace

You get to draw a chip, too. Putting Saving Grace on top of your bag is optional.

Gloria - Healing Touch

In a 3p or 4p game, the player the gems are sent to gets the first chance to react with a purple shield. If he doesn’t, then you can react with this. The +chip in the reaction let’s you draw a chip, not other players.

Gwen - Shadow Plague

Discarding this during the cleanup phase really does give you a wound. Using a +piggy-bank on it would prevent the wound. The last sentence on the chip lets you spend an action (meaning a black arrow) to avoid getting a wound. You can use the one natural action you get each turn to avoid the wound.

Gwen - Burnbarrow

Pretty simple!

Gwen - Shadowswarm

The “you may” clause lets you choose if you want opponents to discard or not. You must choose to make all opponents discard or no opponents. You might not want opponents to discard if you’re afraid of them playing a blue shield as a response. They can’t react to an attack that doesn’t affect them.

Vendetta - Stunlock

This applies to any chip effect that says to "combine" gems in a gempile, including Combine

Combine

, Mix-Master

Mix-Master

, Strength of Earth

Strength of Earth

, One True Style

One True Style

, Combinatorics

Combinatorics

, and Option Select

Option Select

targeting any of those. They must discard the puzzle chips before playing the chip saying to combine gems. If they can't discard a puzzle chip, they don't combine, but they do get any other effects, like +arrows.

Vendetta - Acrobatics

Obviously you can’t choose the same arrow twice.

Vendetta - Surgical Strike

Simple and powerful.

Zane - Crash Bomb

The trashed Crash Gem goes to the bank.

Zane - Crash Potato

You don’t get +gem power (money) for crashing the 1-gem. You can’t exchange this for a Double Crash Gem

Double Crash Gem

, only a Crash Gem

Crash Gem

. You can exchange it with a Crash Gem in your own discard pile.

Zane - Maximum Anarchy

The “Draw a chip” sentence applies to you, not to other players. You get the 4 arrows on your turn the same turn you play Maximum Anarchy. Each other player also gets the 4 arrows on his next turn.